Doctor Who Spin-Off Review: Torchwood - 'One Rule' Comment Long before the Battle of Canary Wharf, Yvonne Hartman had a little adventure in Cardiff in another episode of Big Finish’s audio spin-off series. This was an episode that I was really looking forward to. Not only was it a prequel to both the whole of Torchwood, and even the Doctor Who Series 2 finale ‘ Army of Ghosts ’/’ Doomsday ,’ but it features a character we only barely got to know in the Whoniverse: Yvonne Hartman, as played by Tracy-Ann Oberman. Hartman was already a great character in the two episodes she was in. While not exactly a villain as such, she has very, very strong views about not just her organization, but for the whole of Great Britain — and she’s perfectly happy with taking big risks towards her goals. It’s great to see her in a story that explores those ideas further, when she ends up in Cardiff to take a brief look at Torchwood 3, before getting involved in “local politics.” There are a number of reasons why I loved hearing Yvonne’s story in Cardiff.

First, it gives us a bit of a “fish out of water” story, as someone who’s more used to high-class living in London somehow ends up in the worst restaurants and cheapest night clubs in another city entirely, while also forced into a position where she has to help with the problems of others about whom she really doesn’t care. There are also the people she has to put up with along the way. Of the several candidates running for mayor in Cardiff, possibly the worst of the lot is Barry Jackson. Sexist, homophobic, cowardly, and immensely unlikeable in so many ways, Hartman somehow ends up stuck with this loathsome character. Hearing these two personalities clash makes for great listening, especially since, while he may not exactly have hidden depths, he’s not quite as ignorant of what’s going on as he might initially appear to be. One more reason why I loved the setting is when it’s set: 26th of March, 2005. Being set on the day of the broadcast of ‘ Rose ’ was a nice touch, and admittedly added a feeling of nostalgia to the story.

Particularly with how it dealt with the consequences of the Auton invasion in that episode, both for Torchwood and for Cardiff in general. More from Recaps 11/30 - Doctor Who Review: ‘Embrace the Darkness’ (Eighth Doctor Audio) What makes the episode work more than anything is just how great a character Yvonne Hartman really is. This is partially due to great writing from Joseph Lidster, a man who’s not only written for the TV series with ‘ A Day in the Death ,’ but has also written some great dark character drama for Big Finish , including ‘ Master ’ and ‘ Terror Firma .’ While the plot of the episode is small, how he fleshes out Yvonne’s character is great to listen to. We hear her passion and commitment to her job; we hear her sense of humour and intelligence; and we even hear a side to her that is absolutely terrifying. We know how dedicated she is to her vision of “Queen and country,” but hearing how far she’s willing to go still has the power to shock. Of course, all of this great writing and development wouldn’t be half as effective if it weren’t for Tracy-Ann Oberman’s magnificent performance.

Despite the fact that it’s been a decade since her appearance in Series 2, she plays the character so perfectly that it feels like no time has passed at all. If she ends up getting her own spin-off series focusing purely on her times with Torchwood 1, I certainly wouldn’t have any objections. (Hint-hint, Big Finish: a Yvonne Hartman series needs to be made, based on this single episode!) (Article continues below the next post box.) ‘One Rule’ was a fantastic episode to listen to, and is further proof that Torchwood just might be one of Big Finish’s best ranges yet. Top Stories Spin Off: "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood" Type: Spin Off Group: 27 There are a number of ways spin offs come to be. You have some where someone decides a supporting character on a hit show is strong enough and popular enough to carry a show of their own. Then you have the cases where a character or characters are introduced on a hit show for the explicit purpose of starting a new show. Usually in either case it comes down to someone behind the scenes wanting to capitalize on the success of the original show's popularity. Torchwood seems a bit different to me though.

Yes, it got spun off to capitalize on Doctor Who being a hit. Here's where it's different though. Most spin offs start with someone behind the scenes actively thinking, okay, how do we do a spin off? But with Torchwood... Torchwood seems like maybe the first spin off that forced itself into existence. Like, it just sort of organically evolved and demanded that it be spun off. That's not to say there weren't writers working hard to make the show a reality. Allow me to elaborate. Torchwood is a spin off of the 2005 revival of Doctor Who. Doctor Who started out as a low budget but hugely popular British science fiction series that ran from the sixties through the eighties. It followed the adventures of a time traveler known only as The Doctor. The show followed the adventures of The Doctor and his various companions as they traveled across time and space in the TARDIS, a time machine that looked like a British callbox on the outside and was impossibly bigger on the inside. It also bears mentioning that The Doctor had the power to regenerate himself: if The Doctor was ever killed he had the ability to come back to life as a new person.

Thus whenever an actor tired of playing The Doctor he could be bumped off and replaced with a new actor. In 2005 the show was revived in a new upgraded version. The effects were better and the budget was clearly higher. Aside from the slicker look it was still Doctor Who though: crazy quirky adventures with a various companions. With such a popular franchise coming back to TV there was a lot of advance excitement and such which could lead to security issues. Standard procedure for any movie or TV show in that position is to have a codename for the show while it's in production to help keep things under raps. Everybody is going to try to get a look at the reels of footage for, say, the latest Indiana Jones movie. But nobody is going to try and sneak a peak at that film if the cans are labeled Crazy Monkey Beach Party (okay, I would want to peak at reels labeled Crazy Monkey Beach Party). Looking for an alias to use to throw off the snoops, the folks at Doctor Who hit upon the name Torchwood, Torchwood being an anagram of Doctor Who. So the new Who is barely even born and the spin off's title has already popped up. So the new Doctor Who hits the air.

The new Doctor's first companion was the lovely Rose Tyler. The ninth episode found The Doctor and Rose to World War II England and the Blitz. A strange, creepy child wearing a gas mask is wandering the streets looking for his "mummy". People are falling strangely ill, the final stage of that sickness being their becoming zombish monsters, their faces transmogrifying into a gas masks. Creepy creepy story. In the course of their adventure they ran across a mysterious rogue named Captain Jack Harkness. Well, he says that's his name. Captain Jack was actually another time traveler from the far flung future, a sort of time cop. Well... he SAYS he's a time cop. Hard to really nail down was is really the truth with Jack. He's the ultimate charming rogue, in love with himself but out to romance everyone else around. And being from a more liberally minded future I literally mean everyone, man or woman. By the time they left WWII Captain Jack had thrown in with Rose and The Doctor as a member of their crew, flirting terribly with both of them. He stuck around through the end of the season. The first season finale found our heroes in a no win battle to the death.

Captain Jack laid down his life and died keeping The Doctor and Rose safe. But meanwhile Rose was being suffused with crazy amounts of strange energy which she used to help save the day. At the same time that power managed to bring Captain Jack back from the dead. Not knowing this, Rose and The Doctor left in the TARDIS, accidentally abandoning Captain Jack. But Jack wasn't the only one to die and return. As a result of their adventure, The Doctor was also mortally wounded and was forced to regenerate. Now while he was still on Doctor Who John Barrowman, the actor who played Captain Jack, said in an interview that he would love if Captain Jack could get his own show. Okay, we have a cool title, we have a charming, mysterious character free to be used and the actor who played him actively hoping for a spin off. But there was already even more than that! The first season also accidentally put in place two other cast members, the setting for the new show and one of its central premises. Episode 4 of the first season, Aliens of London centered on an alien invasion of London and featured the introduction of a minor supporting character, a woman named Dr. Sato.

She was one of those small almost background characters that pop up in shows that normally you would never see again. Normally. Then there is the episode right before Aliens of London, The Unquiet Dead. That episode had The Doctor and Rose visiting the British town of Cardiff in 1869. Weird and seemingly ghostly things are happening in Cardiff. What seems super natural ends up actually being science fiction. Seems there is a rift in time and space situated in Cardiff and the "ghosts" are actually alien life forms sneaking through the rift into our world. All would have ended badly if it weren't for the noble actions of s charming servant girl named Gwyneth, played by Eve Myles. Eve Myles was quite memorable. She, Cardiff and the rift all must have stuck in the minds of the producers. In fact Cardiff and the rift even made a return appearance on Doctor Who with the Doctor stopping by the current day location of the rift to take advantage of its properties in the episode Boom Town. Now, by the end of Doctor Who season 1 the producers, they've gotta be actively thinking spin off.

I truly believe many of the elements in season 1 that would become Torchwood were not created with Torchwood in mind (although the name Torchwood is mentioned in season 1 as a mysterious organization). I think most of them were just there organically, not planned. But after season one the show starts laying in even more elements for the spin off in a way that seems pretty intentional. Between the first and second season there was a Doctor Who Christmas special featuring the first of the "new" Doctor's adventures. Aliens attack England at Christmastime while The Doctor is still in the process of regenerating. This culminates in a battle in which two important things happen. First, while confronting the aliens on their ship as it hovers over London, the aliens lop off The Doctor's hand which falls to the city below. Luckily The Doctor was still regenerating and so was able to grow a new hand. Secondly, the mysterious Torchwood organization fully reveals itself for the first time as an agency created to protect Earth from alien invaders. The Doctor saves Earth with little bloodshed on either side of the fight. Torchwood then steps in and viciously destroys the retreating enemy ship, earning The Doctor's hatred.

Next comes the second episode of season 2, Tooth and Claw, had Rose and the "new" Doctor traveling to 19th century Scotland and saving the life of Queen Victoria from evil forces at the Torchwood estate. While Queen Victoria is very thankful, The Doctor bothers her. She knights him for his service and then banishes him. Troubled by The Doctor and the strange forces she has just faced, she forms the Torchwood Institute to guard against such troubles in the future and, if need be, to confront The Doctor himself. The end of the second season would see Torchwood in full action with Rose and The Doctor against a double alien invasion that would leave the organization largely destroyed. Wow. All that and I'm only now actually able to get to the actual spin off. That's what I'm talking about with this show. What other spin off has this much back story build up, this much groundwork in place? Now let me explain how ALL of that pays off... Torchwood the series centers on the Cardiff branch of Torchwood. While there are other branches of the organization, with the London division decimated Cardiff is now the main hub of the organization.

This branch of Torchwood was originally put in place in Cardiff to guard against trouble from the rift introduced in Doctor Who. In fact their base is located directly underground from where the Doctor parked his TARDIS to take advantage of the rift in Boom Town. In the first episode we are introduced to the world of Torchwood through the eyes of Gwen Cooper, a police officer who stumbles into a Torchwood investigation and practically forces her way into a job with the group. Gwen is played by the same actress who played Gwyneth the servant girl in The Unquiet Dead. Hmm. Same town, similar name... could they be related? I have to say, I love our first look at Torchwood. It's a large, old and dirty underground complex filled with amazing sights and people doing intense research. Right from you get hit with the dual vibes of it being a place filled with wonders and also impossibly as a workplace filled with people just as bored and annoyed by where they work as everyone else is with where they work. The team is lead by Captain Jack Harkness. Wait, didn't we leave him stranded in the future? How did he get to present day Cardiff? Why is he working for Torchwood?

Why does he have a severed hand in a jar? And, say, why is he now impossible to kill? Okay, I will now spoil what I can. After being brought back from the dead, Captain Jack time jumped to the past. He was aiming for around the year 2000, hoping to reconnect with The Doctor if he stopped by again to use the Cardiff rift. But Jack's time travel gear messed up and shot him further back more towards 1900 and then fritzed out on him entirely. As luck would have it, when Rose brought Jack back to life, she did too good a job, infusing him with so much life force making him unkillable and nearly immortal. Since we last saw him Jack had lived 100 years. More unaccounted for time and adventures. Hitting the 20th century, Jack headed to Cardiff hoping to find The Doctor. Torchwood was right under where he knew The Doctor would eventually come to use the rift. And he found that hand which he knew was The Doctors, which he knew he could use as a Doctor detector. This lead to Jack's return to Doctor Who as a companion.

At the end of Torchwood's first season, The Doctor finally arrived and Jack took off with him for a chunk of The Doctor's third season at the end of which he decided to return to Torchwood. More mystery was also added to Jack at this point. Jack tells a story about how he was the poster boy from his area for recruitment in the time police because of his good looks. "The Face of Boh they called me." Well, The Face of Boh is a Doctor Who character which appeared in the second episode of the new series. The Face of Boh was a giant head that floats in a smoke filled container, a being supposedly older than time itself and nearly immortal. Boh popped up in several episodes of Doctor Who. If Jack truly is The Face of Boh (how far can you trust anything Jack says) it increases his presence in the Who series dramatically. That revelation retroactively places Jack in the very very start of the new series. So we have Jack. Gwen is brought onto the team to serve as a heart and conscience for the largely cynical group. Owen Harper was the team's snarky medical expert. Suzie Costello did research for the group on some of the alien artifacts they recovered. Did. Past tense.

In the first episode she was seduced by her research into some dark dark deeds leading to her own death. She bears mentioning though since she has already returned from death once to cause trouble in the awesomely titled They Keep Killing Suzie. Ianto serves as the group's... manservant? He keeps an eye on the phony business that serves as Torchwood's front entrance and handles much of the day to day minutiae of running the group. And, hey, remember that bit player doctor from the alien invasion episode of Doctor Who? Toshiko Santo? She's the group's science expert. I like that a lot. Not just that they would bring back her character but that it fits. She was just a regular civilian, then she falls into this Doctor Who story which exposes her to the truth about aliens and the other dangers people aren't generally aware of and that leads her into actually working in that field of research. That instantly gives her character more back story and texture than if they just invented a brand new character you'd never heard of. On my Doctor Who/Doctor Who page I mention that the new Doctor Who in many ways echoes Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Oddly Torchwood echoes the Buffy spin off Angel.

Okay, the obvious comparison is to The X-Files � government agency looking into aliens. But consider it. Angel was about a handsome immortal Vampire trying to regain his humanity while he and his coworkers/friends fight to protect his city from supernatural forces. The show itself had a darker and more mature tone than Buffy. Now look at Torchwood. It's about a handsome immortal trying to regain his mortality while he and his coworkers/friends fight to protect their city and country from supernatural forces. Heck Torchwood even had on James Marsters who played Spike on Angel and Buffy. Spike was a troublemaking vampire friend from the bad old days Angel was trying to live down. On Torchwood he plays Captain John Hart a troublemaking time agent friend from the bad old days Captain Jack is trying to live down. The only difference might be that Captain Jack and Captain John also clearly had an intimate relationship. It was never stated that Angel and Spike were likewise initimate. Although, given their long history together and the no-limits lifestyle they enjoyed it actually is likely they did. While I'm on the subject of sex, I should tell you in advance this show does play pretty loose and easy with sexuality and fidelity.

I mean, okay, Captain Jack is a swinging anything-goes charmer from the future. But every single character on the show has shown some evidence of bi-sexuality. Jack and Ianto are both clearly open to relationships with men or women. Owen has multiple times implied he'd swing with a guy. And both of the ladies have run into circumstances where they have been seduced by another woman. I should say with the women at least the situation was ushc where they played up their own shock at discovering they could go that way. And I'm even being judgemental. Live and let live and all that but... you're telling me that five out of five of them all are bi. Not even gay, bi. I think the thinking behind the scenes might be to present a world where people's sexuality can be whatever they want it to be without ANY sexual orientation being demonized. Nice idea but, well, given the crazy concepts flying around on a show like this they do need to keep the show grounded in what feels like the real world. Sometimes I think they miss that mark. For instance in a time travel episode where Captain Jack and Toshiko end up in WWII England.

They're smart enough to acknowledge and deal with the fact that Toshiko is a Japanese woman in a country that would look at her as "the enemy". But another plot had Captain Jack Harkness meeting up with the real Captain Jack Harkness. Seems he borrowed that identity from a dead American pilot when he was last in that era. Well this time he arrives at a point in time when the original Captain Jack was still alive. Our Captain Jack and the original Captain Jack fall in love with each other. Now the conceit is a funny one: Captain Jack is such an egotist the only person he would ever truly fall in love with would be himself. And there is room for real social drama in it. A man who has to contend with being gay at a time and in an occupation that make it extremely taboo. I'm with them. Then we get to where Jack and Toshiko leave for the future through a rip in time. Before leaving, Jack turns back and does a big farewell face suck with the real Captain Jack. Only thing is he does this in the middle of a party crowd of WWII era citizens and Gis. And it's no small kiss. It's a big one that last a looong time.

And there is no indication that they are outside of time or anything like that. The people back in WWII can see everything. Nobody seems to bat an eye or care or anything. Okay there is also a big time rip there which might be a bigger shocker I guess but still, it undercut the believability of the scene. Nobody bats an eye??? The plot was that the next day the real Captain Jack flies a mission and dies. I would think that making out with another dude in front of other soldiers might just change that. I'm seeing at minimum some possible fights with other soldiers or to the more extreme the potential for him not flying the mission because he'd be in more than a little trouble with the military. Again, the idea of showing openness towards sexual preferences flies in the face of the reality of the world they were playing in. As a final note, the ties to Doctor Who look to continue with The Doctor's recent companion Martha Jones helping out the Torchwood team. Other Doctor Who Crossover Links Torchwood (TV series) | Tardis | Fandom powered by Wikia [ show ] You may wish to consult Torchwood (disambiguation) for other, similarly-named pages.

Torchwood was a Doctor Who television spin-off. As an in-house BBC Wales production for digital television station BBC Three , it was the first television spin-off of Doctor Who since the pilot of K9 and Company in 1981 and the first to be commissioned for a full 13-part series. It originally featured the adventures of the Torchwood branch located in Cardiff and later the Torchwood team that succeeds it, and was set on Earth after the events of Doomsday (and for lead character Jack Harkness the events of The Parting of the Ways ). The spin-off series has not yet featured the Doctor himself, though the materialisation sound of the Doctor's TARDIS is heard in the final episode of season one, and other dialogue references have been made, most recently in the Torchwood: Miracle Day arc. Likewise, the appearance of Martha Jones in the second series provides vital continuity between third and fourth series of Doctor Who. Conversely, Jack, as well as his team of Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones featured (and former team members Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato are mentioned) in the last two episodes of the fourth series of Doctor Who.

Regular characters have included Gwen Cooper , Jack Harkness , Ianto Jones , Toshiko Sato , Owen Harper , Rex Matheson and Esther Drummond . Martha Jones , Suzie Costello and Vera Juarez have also been portrayed as part of the Torchwood team led by Harkness. Semi-regulars Rhys Williams and Sgt Andy Davidson are the only non-Torchwood members who have recurred across all series. The 12 October 2016 marks the 10th anniversary of Torchwood. In celebration of that, and due to its popularity, cast and crew have been invited to the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, and a special screening of the very first ever episode to be shown for the fans. [1] Big Finish also produced a special audio story to celebrate the show's anniversary. Origins Edit In 2002 , before the revival of Doctor Who, Russell T Davies began to develop an idea for a science-fiction/crime drama in the style of American fantasy drama series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel.

This idea, originally titled Excalibur, was abandoned until 2005 , when BBC Three Controller Stuart Murphy invited Davies to develop a post- watershed science fiction series for the channel. During the production of the 2005 series of Doctor Who, the word "Torchwood" (an anagram of "Doctor Who") originated during production of the new Doctor Who series, when television pirates were eager to get their hands on the tapes. Someone in the production office suggested that the tapes be labelled "Torchwood" instead of "Doctor Who" to disguise their contents as they were being sent to London . Davies thought that was a clever idea and remembered the name. Davies connected the word Torchwood to his earlier Excalibur idea and decided to make the series a Doctor Who spin-off. Subsequently, the word Torchwood was seeded in several Doctor Who episodes and other media which aired in 2005 and 2006. Premise Edit The series was set in contemporary Cardiff and followed the Welsh branch of a covert agency called the Torchwood Institute , which investigates extraterrestrial incidents on Earth and scavenges alien technology for its own use.

As established in the Doctor Who episodes Tooth and Claw and Army of Ghosts , the Institute had been formed by Queen Victoria following an incident involving the Tenth Doctor and a werewolf , ostensibly to protect the British Empire from aliens and other creatures — as well as from the Doctor himself. To paraphrase Torchwood Three's commander-in-chief, Jack Harkness , the organisation was separate from the government, outside the police, and beyond the United Nations (the last reference thereby placing Torchwood in a different realm than UNIT ). Although a secret organisation, the existence of Torchwood was known by the public, and Torchwood operatives made no secret of their identity when on duty (they even drove a vehicle emblazoned with the name). Their public perception was as merely a "special ops" group, with their true responsibilities kept secret to all but a select few. The events of the first series took place some time after the Doctor Who Doomsday series two finale, in which Torchwood's London headquarters was destroyed, and just before the series three finale; the final episode of Series 1 led directly into the Doctor Who episode Utopia .

The initial main writer alongside Davies was Chris Chibnall , creator of the BBC light drama show Born and Bred (who later moved over to work on Law & Order UK ). Other writers include P.J. Hammond , Toby Whithouse , Doctor Who script editor Helen Raynor , Catherine Tregenna , and Doctor Who cast member Noel Clarke . In a 17 October 2005 announcement unveiling the series, BBC Three controller Stuart Murphy described Torchwood as "sinister and psychological...As well as being very British and modern and real." Davies further described it as "a British sci-fi paranoid thriller, a cop show with a sense of humour. [...] Dark, wild and sexy, it's The X-Files meets This Life ."[ source needed ] Davies later denied ever making this comparison, instead describing the show as "alleyways, rain, the city". As Torchwood was a post- watershed show — that is, after 9 p.m. — it had more mature content than Doctor Who. Davies told SFX : "We can be a bit more visceral, more violent, and more sexual , if we want to.

Though bear in mind that it's very teenage to indulge yourself in blood and gore, and Torchwood is going to be smarter than that. But it's the essential difference between BBC One at 7 pm, and BBC Three at, say, 9 pm. That says it all — instinctively, every viewer can see the huge difference there." Davies also joked to a BBC Radio Wales interviewer that he was "not allowed" to refer to the programme as "Doctor Who for grown-ups". The first and second series included content never before seen or heard in the televised side of the Doctor Who franchise, including intense lovemaking scenes (in episodes such as Day One , Out of Time or Dead of Night ), same-sex kissing in a romantic/sexual context (in Cyberwoman or Captain Jack Harkness , for example), and use of extreme profanity in several episodes. Such content was controversial among aspects of Who fandom, and, as the series progressed, such scenes were minimised, to the point where, by series 3 , relatively little of this content remained.

Cast The episode TV : Turn Left presents an alternate timeline, nicknamed Donna's World , where, by saving the Earth from a Sontaran invasion (an event shown in the usual timeline in TV : The Sontaran Stratagem and TV : The Poison Sky ), Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones die, while Jack Harkness is captured and taken to Sontar . (In this alternate timeline, as in the normal one, Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper have already died.) In TV : The Stolen Earth and TV : Journey's End , the surviving Torchwood team and the Hub appear. While Jack goes off to save the Tenth Doctor , Gwen and Ianto remain in the Hub to fight off a Dalek . TV : Journey's End concludes with Jack offering Martha a job with Torchwood. After leaving Earth in TV : Day Five , following all the deaths he's claimed responsibility for up to and including Ianto and Steven , Jack Harkness is seen at a bar drinking his sorrows. ( TV : The End of Time ) Crossover characters/aliens Edit According to Russell T Davies in The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter , two former members of the pop group ABBA issued a proposal for a stage musical based upon Torchwood.

The proposal was rejected, and in his book Davies strongly indicates that the idea was never taken seriously. [6] American series Edit In January 2010 US media reported that Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter were planning a US version of Torchwood for the Fox network, which had previously aired the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie . According to the reports, Barrowman and other original cast members may have appeared. The media coverage did not indicate whether or not the series was expected to be a remake/standalone, or if it would tie in with existing Whoniverse continuity. On the 20th January 2010 it was announced that Fox had ordered a pilot script for a US version of Torchwood from BBC Worldwide. [7] On 21st April 2010, however, BBC Worldwide announced that Fox had chosen not to proceed with the series, which according to the BBC was to have been a 13-episode, serialised programme, similar to the UK original. [8] The show was later picked up by the American network Starz, which co-produced the fourth series .

Merchandising How Torchwood, the 'Adult' Spinoff of Doctor Who, Finally Grew Up How Torchwood, the 'Adult' Spinoff of Doctor Who, Finally Grew Up Go to permalink Ten years ago, the success of Doctor Who gave birth to the spinoff series Torchwood. After a very rough start, it evolved; while it always had its highs and lows, Torchwood ultimately transformed into something far greater than its troubled beginnings—and it only really did it by cutting its links to Doctor Who. Advertisement I’ve been thinking a lot about Torchwood, mainly thanks to the fact that BBC Three—the UK channel aimed at being “trendy” BBC content for teenage audiences which produced the series—recently shut down and moved online , because that’s where “trendy” content pretty much lives now. I reminisced, and rewatched, and remembered how Torchwood slowly evolved from cheesy grittiness into a scifi show that challenged and questioned the genre in some truly satisfying ways. But good lord, it really did start out rough.

Torchwood was originally pitched as an adult side to the family-friendly world of Doctor Who, stories and scenarios that were too gory, sexy, or grim for the cheery Timelord to be part of. However, for all its intent, Torchwood began with anything but a sense of maturity. Instead of telling science fiction for adults, its idea of a mature tone was the fact that a) characters had a lot of sex with each other and b) people said the word “fuck”, gloriously rendered in a multitude of British accents ( usually Welsh ). It was pretty much uttered in every other sentence. Advertisement There was nothing adult about it. Instead, it was essentially teenaged—just as a teenager rebels against the cosiness of their family with edginess, Torchwood rebelled against Doctor Who’s concepts in a similarly “edgy” immaturity. Doctor Who has aliens? Oh, our first alien is a sex-mad alien who kills people by having sex! Doctor Who is about the camaraderie between The Doctor and his companion? Well, Torchwood’s staff pretty much despise each other, or want to have sex with each other, or both! Doctor Who has iconic monsters like the Cybermen?

Our Cybermen are sexy ladies with cyber boobs. For the majority of its first season, Torchwood languished in this false sense of puerile maturity, its connection to Doctor Who a crutch that provided a rich world (and an excellent lead character in John Barrowman’s Jack Harkness) but also cursed Torchwood into a constant attempt to have a naughtier take on every aspect of the fantastical, slightly camp, family-friendly nature of it. But decades of Doctor Who couldn’t be rendered adult by a bit of blood and some heavy cursing—that way madness lies, as does the vast majority of Torchwood season one. Sponsored But then, something changed. Back to back, the first season’s ninth and tenth episodes, “Random Shoes” and “Out of Time,” both reflected a change in direction and tone that Torchwood would build upon for the rest of its time, an actual sense of maturity that made it adult drama and set it as a diametric opposite to Doctor Who.

(It’s worth noting the episode immediately before them is about one of the Torchwood team members, Owen, getting caught up in an alien fight club, which is even lamer than it sounds.) “Random Shoes” told an intimate tale that revolved around the death of a single young man and the potentially alien artifact he had in his possession almost all his life. It was about the randomness of death, moving on, and the strangeness of Doctor Who’s strange world, sparked by years of The Doctor’s adventures and the alien natures they left behind. It was a story that could never be told in Doctor Who, where people die left, right, and center every week whenever a monster attacks, with very little time to examine those deaths and their impacts on the normal people around The Doctor and all the corridor-running. Advertisement Advertisement “Out of Time” was played with Doctor Who’s tropes even more, in a deeply sad manner. It dealt with a group of people who find themselves displaced through time from the 1950s into the present day, and how that impacted on both them and the Torchwood team. It looked at the intimate impact of time travel in a way Doctor Who rarely could by its very nature.

Suddenly, Torchwood had found a rich vein it could tap into, a niche to make it its own. Instead of taking Doctor Who and its monsters and trying to add violence and swearing to it, Torchwood could intimately examine the world (well, Cardiff) and people that are left behind when The Doctor closes the doors of his TARDIS and flies away. Naturally, it swung back in the opposite direction for the season finale which featured a giant devil-like demon called Abbaddon stomping around Cardiff city center and killing anyone its shadow fell upon . (This was also even lamer than it sounds.) But that, in a way, makes my point: Torchwood was at its best when it kept the scale small and as un-Doctor Who as possible. Instead of the world or the galaxy being at stake, Torchwood shone when its plots were personal, when it was just the team or a handful of people in danger. Where death had meaning beyond a bunch of mooks being zapped by the alien of the week, but could be random and catastrophic to the people surrounded by it.

Torchwood’s second season slowly began to master that balance, and even its lapses into the teenage edginess at times were at least played for laughs rather than as an attempt to actually appear “mature.” It went on from strength to strength, culminating in the death of Owen Harper—a moment I’ve written about before —a tight arc where the major stake that had huge, emotional ramifications for the series was the death of a single man. It wasn’t even an “epic” death or sacrifice, it was one that was random and pointless, and because of that it incredibly tragic—a powerful, poignant moment that Doctor Who character Martha Jones was present for, almost as if symbolically passing the torch from Torchwood’s progenitor as it moved onto its own path. The Exact Moment When Torchwood Finally Came Into Its Own The Exact Moment When Torchwood Finally Came Into Its Own The Exact Moment When Torchwood Finally Came Into… Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood had a decidedly shaky first season.

Its place as an 'adult'… Read more Read more After the second season, Torchwood went even further with the third season/miniseries Children of Earth, which cemented the show’s complete tonal difference to Doctor Who by transforming itself into a tense thriller that examined the darkness of humanity in a way the parent show could never truly dive into. Torchwood’s teenage rebellion was long behind it, replaced with a maturity that made the show must-watch, game-changing science fiction (something it arguably lost in its incredibly disappointing fourth outing, Miracle Day, which traded Torchwood’s tension and intimacy for grandiose, American-bound global shenanigans with little depth ). Advertisement Advertisement All it took was a realization that an adult take on Doctor Who needed to be more than a superficial layer of people saying “fuck.” By embracing the limits of being rooted in one place and in one time, and by taking a light to the shadows left unexplored by Doctor Who, Torchwood finally became the adult science fiction series it had always wanted to be. Contact the author at james.whitbrook@io9.com .

Gear from Kinja Deals Torchwood - News - Big Finish Categories: Doctor Who - Main Range , UNIT - The New Series , Torchwood , General Big Finish News Big Finish proudly presents John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood - an all new series of audio dramas based on the fantastic Doctor Who spin-off series. Torchwood , the intrepid team of alien investigators, returns in a series of six audio productions, as part of a licensing deal with BBC Worldwide. Once again, the Torchwood team will be led by the irrepressible Captain Jack, as played by John Barrowman - who broke the news of the series return on his radio show on Sunday evening. Conceived as a spin-off from Doctor Who, Torchwood was created by Russell T Davies (Doctor Who, Cucumber, Banana, Queer as Folk) and made its debut on television in 2006. The top secret organisation Torchwood saved Cardiff (and often the world) from alien menaces and terrifying forces, trying to keep the city safe from the inter-dimensional rift that ran through it.

In charge of Torchwood was Captain Jack, a man who has been called: “A companion to the Doctor, a rogue Time Agent, an immortal, a dangerous con-man, and very good at parties.” Captain Jack can't be exterminated or trusted, and there's just no stopping him. The new series of audio dramas will each focus on different members of the Torchwood team, exploring the impact that a mysterious event has on them. Starting off the range will be John Barrowman, who stars in The Conspiracy , a deadly thriller by David Llewellyn, which is released September 2015. Torchwood creator Russell T Davies says: “Torchwood has been to the Moon, and America, and the Himalayas, but now I think it's finally coming home, to the brilliance of Big Finish." “What's great about Torchwood is that it is as unstoppable as Captain Jack and just as persuasive,” says producer James Goss. “Torchwood has been a ratings success on nearly every BBC channel, and it's one of the few UK series to translate to America. It's already been a series of iPlayer-topping audio plays, and we are thrilled to continue it.

It’s just so exciting to be starting off the range with a drama starring John Barrowman – he leapt at the chance to display a whole new side to Captain Jack.” Executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery says: “It's fantastic that we will be bringing Captain Jack back to life (for perhaps the thousandth time!) with Big Finish. There are many new Torchwood tales to be told and I can't wait for Jack and his team to defend the Earth once again. I am very grateful for the continuing faith that both the BBC and Russell T Davies have shown in us and very excited to enter into a new world for Big Finish.” Executive producer Nicholas Briggs says: “Torchwood is something we’ve wanted to do for ages. It has great characters and there are many stories to be told. Our mission is to bring a whole new series of dramatic adventures to life. We’re starting off with these more intimate, focused releases and will then move on to bigger casts and even wider scope. We’re very much looking forward to working with all the cast and it’s been such a pleasure liaising with Russell T Davies about this. He couldn’t have been more supportive and helpful.

Our Torchwood producer, James Goss, has really hit the ground running and his tangible enthusiasm is already proving rather an inspiration to us.” Torchwood - Ranges - Big Finish See all forthcoming releases in this range » Torchwood Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) returns in Torchwood, all new audio adventures based on the popular Doctor Who spin off series. Torchwood - a clandestine organisation outside the government, beyond the police. An elite team of operatives defending Cardiff and the world from alien menaces and terrible forces, keeping the city safe from the interdimensional rift that runs through it. Led by the irrepressible Captain Jack Harkness, former Time Agent and companion to the Doctor, this new series of stories find the Torchwood team caught up in a dangerous event which will impact their lives forever. The series begins with The Conspiracy, released in September 2015 - and the story will continue in five further releases monthly through to 2016.

Save Money Doctor Who: Cardiff Bay walking tour Twitter Doctor Who walking tour of Cardiff Bay Cardiff is a pivotal setting for the adventures of Doctor Who and Torchwood – here’s how to walk in Peter Capaldi, David Tennant and Matt Smith's footsteps ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW By Radio Times staff When Doctor Who returned to our screens in 2005, the show’s chief writer, Welshman Russell T Davies moved the production to Cardiff, making the city both the home location for filming and a setting for some episodes. And when the spin-off series Torchwood kicked off in 2006, the alien-hunters’ home base, The Hub, was in the heavily regenerated Cardiff Bay — the rebirth of the bay from post-Second World War industrial malaise and Doctor Who’s regeneration from TV inertia having occurred at the same time, 2004—2006. The city and surrounding area are dotted with locations for both series. Dedicated Whovians can take a four-hour bus tour of the city, but this short walk around Cardiff Bay takes in key locations. Distance: Half a mile.

Time: An hour START Roald Dahl Plass, named after the Cardiff-born author, sits directly in front of the architecturally impressive Wales Millennium Centre and The Senedd (the Welsh Assembly building). The 70ft-high stainless steel Water Tower in the plaza’s centre can’t be missed. This was where the time rift hidden below Cardiff funnelled out through the Tardis in Doctor Who’s 2005 episode Boom Town and, in Torchwood’s first episode, Everything Changes (2006), a secret “lift” entrance to The Hub appeared here. Look across to the entrance to the Millennium Centre. This is where Van Gogh’s exhibition was held in Doctor Who’s 2010 episode Vincent and the Doctor. Walk south to The Senedd and you’ll find that not even the home of Welsh democracy has escaped being a location for Doctor Who. The interior of this striking structure — opened in 2006 — was used in The Lazarus Experiment.

Then, almost directly in front of The Senedd, you’ll see the imposing, red-brick Pierhead Building — backdrop for David Tennant’s Doctor chatting with his companions Captain Jack Harkness and Martha Jones in 2007’s Last of the Time Lords.

Question: Which city is the setting for the 'Dr. Who' spin-off series 'Torchwood'?
Answer: CARDIFF